Colonial Denied 2016 License, Cites ‘Hostile Regulatory Environment’

After a Tuesday rejection of an application to the Virginia Racing Commission for four 2016 racing dates, the owner of Colonial Downs in Virginia is exploring other options for the 607-acre property, which has not hosted a Thoroughbred meet since 2013.

Virginia racing has been mired in a years-long, complex tangle of disagreement between the Virginia Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and Jacobs Entertainment, Inc., the owner of the state’s only commercial horse track.

“As a businessman who has invested over $100 million dollars, blood, sweat and tears to move Virginia horse racing to major-league status, I must say I have never been faced with such a hostile regulatory environment as this one,” Jeff Jacobs, the chief executive officer of Jacobs Entertainment, said in a press release. “The members of the VRC are too close to the HBPA to allow them to look at Colonial Downs in a fair and impartial way.”

Bernie Hettel, executive director of the Virginia Racing Commission, could not be reached for comment prior to the deadline for this story.

In 2014, Colonial and the VHBPA were locked in a stalemate over the scheduling of the summer meet. Eventually, the VRC got fed up enough to impose a carbon-copy of the 2013 season (25 dates) upon both parties. But no contract was ever inked, the 2014 meet was abandoned, and each side blamed the other. In October 2014, Colonial surrendered its racing license and soon after closed its network of eight off-track betting locations.

Despite numerous attempts at negotiating a 2015 race meet that would combine high-profile stakes races with “bread and butter” racing opportunities for Virginia horsemen held over several weekends, no Colonial meet was held in 2015, either.

A non-profit horsemen’s group called the Virginia Equine Alliance was formed earlier this year to seek alternate locations for short, festival-style race meets at various locations in the state. Most recently, the VEA hosted a one-day pari-mutuel license for a six-race card of all-turf flat races at Great Meadow Sept. 20. Morven Park (an equestrian center that hosted steeplechase and limited flat racing until three years ago) has been cited as a possible location for 2016 races.

“The real tragedy of it all is that all parties agree on far more than they disagree,” Stan Guidroz, regional vice president of Jacobs Entertainment, wrote in an email.

In covering the denial of the 2016 dates, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Tuesday that the Virginia Racing Commission cited Colonial’s “callous disregard for the industry” dating to 2014 as a reason for not granting the most recent request for racing. “It’s critical that this industry be unified if it is going to grow, and yet we have reached a schism of major proportions,” said D.G. Van Clief Jr., vice chairman of the commission.

Guidroz said that Colonial management has “spent countless hours trying to find a way to make racing work but we have run into obstacles at every turn.” He added that a golf course on the Colonial property “holds significant promise” for development.